U.S. intel: Chinese hackers planted 'trap doors' in government computers
Friday, June 20, 2008 Free Headline Alerts
East-Asia-Intel.com
By going public last week about hack attacks by China on computers in his congressional office, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) put the spotlight on a growing trend of cyber attacks on U.S. and foreign government officials.
U.S. defense officials confirmed that Chinese military hackers had broken into computers at the Pentagon used for email within the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel complained directly to Chinese President Hu Jintao about Chinese attacks on German government computers, and European and Asian governments from France and Britain to Japan and South Korea have identified widespread Chinese hacking.
U.S. intelligence officials disclosed that one objective of the Chinese hacking is to plant “trap doors” into government computer systems that would permit shutting down or disrupting the systems in war time. Some government agencies were forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars replacing compromised computers because they could not be certain that Chinese hackers had not left hidden access points in them.
Wolfsaid last week that four computers in his congressional office had been compromised by hackers from China in August 2006. Other members also were attacked, along with members who traveled abroad using portable computers, he said.
“In subsequent meetings with House Information Resources and officials from the FBI, I was told not only that other members and at least one committee of the House had been similarly compromised, but that the outside sources responsible for this attack came from within the People’s Republic of China,” Wolf said in a statement on the House floor.
The computers were “cleaned’ and returned, but Wolf said he was “deeply concerned that Congress is not adequately aware of or protected from these types of threats.”
Wolf said he suspected that Chinese hackers targeted his computers “because of my long history of speaking out about China’s abysmal human rights record.”
“China in particular is actively engaged in espionage against the United States,” Wolf said. According to a classified report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission,” Chinese espionage activity is “very alarming,” Wolf said.
“The report addresses Chinese activities in the areas of espionage, cyber warfare, and arms proliferation,” he said, noting that the report “gives a clear picture of the threat that China poses to our national security.”